Online entrepreneur Nicole Dean teaches internet marketing tips and strategies. She also interviews other successful internet business owners to find out the secrets to their online success. Find out what they're doing that you're not.

I ‘recharge my batteries’ by attending (or speaking at) industry events and conferences. Despite being an introvert, I love the camaraderie that comes from events like NAMS, where we get to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Of course, the shenanigans that often happen after the sessions are the most fun and really help to restore my mojo when I’ve been running on empty!

For some reason, people think they have to “feel it” to be productive. I think the difference between a professional and a hobbyist is that the professional shows up whether their mojo is in the house or not. Just think of Celine Dion – do you think she tells her sold-out crowds in Vegas, “Nope, sorry. Just not feeling it tonight.” Emotions are a transitory thing. Some days I feel like sitting down to work, and some days I feel like curling up under my covers and reading junky novels. If I give in to the latter too often, I’ll be in big trouble!

That being said, I can get burnt out at times. After a big event, I need to give myself time to physically recover and to reconnect with my family, who have been surviving on mac ‘n’ cheese for the past week. A day or two of down time can re-charge my batteries and get me ready for the next big project.

I also can get zapped if I’m spending too much time doing the tasks and projects best left to someone else (like customer service). If I’m feeling blah day after day for an extended period of time, usually this is the reason; I’ve been doing soul-sucking work, rather than soul-fulfilling work. Then I have to realign my task list to better reflect the projects I’m excited about.

Sometimes I lose my mojo and sometimes I lose my vision… both have a similar effect on me. I grind to a halt and feel stuck.

When I lose my mojo for business, when it all feels like it’s been said or done before, I seek to spend time with newcomers. They see everything with fresh eyes and ask great questions. This lights a fire under me and before I know it, my mojo is burning brightly again.

When I have mojo but lack vision on where to go next, I seek to spend time with successful contemporaries. They shine a light on my potential and make me realize I’m bonkers to not live up to it. With a little brainstorming and planning, my forward vision gets a jumpstart and I’m off and running again.

Accountabilityâ€”My coach issued this challenge to me,Â andÂ she checked in to see how my progress was going. That lit a little fire under my behindâ€¦

Mastermindâ€”Iâ€™m part of a small mastermind group and we had our bi-weekly check-in meeting Wednesday morning. Telling them what I was up to helped renew the spark of excitement I had when the project was brand new two weeks before.

Left-Brained Activitiesâ€”Some might call it procrastination, but during my â€œoff kilterâ€ time I played in the kitchen withÂ raw foodÂ recipes (and ate a LOT of chocolate), put together office furniture, ran errands, worked out and pretty much did everythingexceptÂ write.

Right-Brained Activitiesâ€”When I felt my mojo start to return, I fostered it byÂ playing with LEGOs, playing with my cat and playing with food (a left- and right-brained activity).

Chocolateâ€”I ate aÂ LOTÂ of chocolate!Â Raw cacaoÂ has energy and creativity-boosting properties, so I ate a ton of it.Â

The fact is, all writers, entrepreneurs, artistsâ€”well, pretty much everyone whoâ€™s ever embarked on a large project like writing a bookâ€”loses their mojo once in a while.Â No one can say when your mojo leaves, how or when it will return. Mine hit suddenly around 9pm on Wednesday night, after a full day of the above activities. Having a coach hold me accountable wasÂ huge. Sheâ€™s pushing me to go further than I think I can, and celebrating when I surprise myself. My mastermind group does a similar thing and offers support with like-minded people. And combining left- and right-brained activities opens the neurological pathways between the two hemispheres.Â Of course, my personal opinion is chocolate is whatÂ reallyÂ did it.Â

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

When my mojo flies the coop, I chase it down and tackle it in a few different ways and drag it back, even if it’s kicking and screaming.

Yes, it happens to ALL of us. Like my friends above, I’ve been in this business a long time for TEN years (since 2004) and I’ve definitely had my on and off periods of time.

My friends touched on many of the things that I was going to mention, so I’ll come at it from another angle.

1. Avoid loss of mojo in the first place.Â Have a vision and understand that what you do impacts other people. If your #1 goal in business is to profile AND make the web and the world a better place, then by not running your business, you aren’t making the web and the world better. Right?

2. Take your vitamins. Seriously – good vitamins can really affect your entire mood, energy levels, and overall outlook on life, the universe and everything. Â I keep mine sitting on my desk, so that I remember to take them every day. I notice that when I forget, I fade.

3. Â Have people dependent on you. I have my team (assistants, customer support, writers, designers, etc), business partners, my family, my coaching clients, and even my dogs dependent upon my success. I don’t have the luxury of crawling into bed too long before I have to get my butt up and get busy getting things done.

4. Allow for the down times and don’t beat yourself up when they happen. Forgive yourself as you would forgive others. Don’t get into a spiral of “I suck… ” because it doesn’t help you to get back on your feet.

5. Keep track of your progress. With my coaching clients, I always recommend they create a spreadsheet or notebook of “Where I am Now” so they can track their progress. Otherwise, if growth is slow and steady, you may not realize that you’re moving forward unless you have a way to look back. It’s kind of like with weight loss. If you haven’t seen someone in a year, and they’ve been losing 1-2 lbs per month, they may not realize how different they look, but you sure will.

6. Have some happy reminders near your desk. I have cards and printouts by my desk from people who have taken the time to send me words of love. These are from past coaching clients, friends whose lives I’ve touched through my work, and colleagues. I pick those up and reread them from time to time when I need a boost.

7. Most importantly – have some recurring income streams in place. When my mojo runs off – I have enough passive income streams and recurring revenue streams in place that I don’t have to panic. I can take a break and not freak out about it. It’s ok and that’s a great feeling for me. I hope you have some in place as well. If not – please listen to the free audio on the top of this page to learn why it’s so important to me that you start adding income streams today. Passive Income & Recurring Income Training

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. If all of the above fails, write a blog post about getting your mojo back and then you’ll talk yourself into getting your stuff done. Busted.

I seem to loose my mojo in the evenings when I have work that is planned. If I am tired and just want to blow things off, I ask myself the following:

1. Is what I need to get done critical to my success, or was it a task/function that was planned tonight because I had time available to do it (i.e., is it ok to let this slide if I do not do it now). On occasion, it is not that important and I can consider not completing it.

2. Do I deserve a break tonight – If I have been slacking a lot and don’t deserve to take the night off, I won’t. However, if I have been cranking out the work and I truly would be better served by relaxing, I can consider not completing the work.

3. Is what needs to be done part of a plan that is relies of the completion of this work? This means, if I push off this work, will I cause havoc with the rest of the week/month?

4. If it comes down to having to do the work and I am NOT in the mood, or I am tired, or just not feeling it, an old fashion cup of coffee gets made, I put on appropriate music, and I ‘force’ myself into getting the work done. I simply keep my “my eye on the prize” and know I have to get it done.Paul Taubman recently posted..Why You Should Use WordPress For Your Website

I’ve found that the best thing for me is to do something that gets my right brain kicked into gear. You can usually tell when you’ve done that because you feel like you’re “in the zone” and time passes by super fast. For me, this happens if I sit down and start sketching something (you don’t have to be good at drawing, just focused). It also happens if I go outside and start working on a garden project that I enjoy. It can really be anything that you enjoy, and that you tend to “lose yourself” in when you’re doing it. This type of activity gets the creative juices flowing and I can come back to writing with a fresh perspective and a LOT better attitude. Spending some quality time with my kids also has the same effect. If I’m still not feeling it, I look for blogs related to mine and try to leave some relevant comments. Sometimes writing a reaction to someone else’s post will give me a spark and some new ideas that I can use on my own site.Mike recently posted..Random Acts of Kindness Stories

Hi Nicole, I absolutely agree with your tips #1 “Avoid loss of mojo in the first place.” I had it a couple of times last year. So now I just take more time off and do some fun things with my daughter so that I do not get to the point of burnout.